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Audit Committee, 09 Nov 2004

09 Nov 2004 · S2 · Audit Committee

Item of business

“Maintaining Scotland's roads”

Mr Robert Black (Auditor General for Scotland): Watch on SPTV

We all know that there is a huge amount of public interest in the condition of Scottish roads, with frequent media reports about potholes and the like, congestion caused by roadworks and the need to keep roads open during the winter and, this year, even to keep them open during the summer in parts of Scotland.The timing of the study is particularly appropriate, because we have the results of the first comprehensive study of road conditions in Scotland, so we now have a fairly good idea of the condition of Scotland's roads and the scale of the problem that councils and the Scottish Executive face. The report is a joint report between the Accounts Commission and me. In it, we examine the condition of the roads, the money that is spent by councils and the Scottish Executive on road maintenance and how road maintenance is managed. My principal interest is in the 3,500km of motorways and trunk roads that are maintained by the Executive; the Accounts Commission has a particular interest in councils' responsibilities for the 51,000km of other public roads.I examined trunk road maintenance once before. Three years ago, I published a report on the trunk road maintenance contracts and how they had been managed and let. One of the key recommendations was that the Executive should continue to monitor the performance of contractors and report publicly on performance progress under the new contracts after the first year of operation. Since then, I am pleased to say that the Executive has produced a series of annual reports on the performance of the trunk road operating companies. Those reports have formed the basis of the findings on trunk road maintenance in the latest report.If I may, I will briefly outline the main findings. This first repeatable survey of Scottish road conditions suggests that 13 per cent of all Scotland's roads should be considered for repair now, and a third require further investigation. Generally speaking, exhibit 1 of the summary briefing shows that higher classes of road tend to be in a better condition. The survey indicated that 90 per cent of motorways and dual carriageway trunk roads are in acceptable condition. However, only two thirds of single carriageway trunk roads are in an acceptable condition and almost 14 per cent are in need of repair.The Executive has a trunk road maintenance backlog of £232 million. Councils estimate the cost of eliminating their road maintenance backlog to be around £1.5 billion, including about £900 million for road repairs, but I stress that the method of calculating that figure needs to be refined. In other words, the figure is not wholly reliable and should be seen as no more than a general indication at this point.In 2002-03, the Executive spent about £127 million on maintaining trunk roads, while councils' revenue expenditure was about £277 million and their capital expenditure was £44 million. Exhibit 3 on the final page of the key messages summary shows the spending trends since the early 1990s. Revenue spending on council-maintained roads fell sharply in the mid-1990s and, in real terms, it was still below the 1994-95 level in 2002-03. Spending on trunk roads also fell, but it has recovered.The Scottish Executive has effective performance monitoring arrangements in place for motorways and trunk roads. The Executive's performance audit group has published three annual reports, covering customer service, value for money, effective management and financial performance. The reports show that contractual requirements are generally being met and that contractor performance has continued to improve. The Executive is introducing an asset management system for motorways and trunk roads, but many councils have yet to develop the basic inventory and information systems that are necessary to support proper asset management.Our report makes a number of recommendations. The main ones for the Executive and councils are that they should publish annual information on the condition of the road networks and that they should manage the road maintenance backlog using a consistent methodology and approach.David Pia and John Lincoln from Audit Scotland are with me. They have worked on the report and will be able to answer the more detailed questions that members may have.

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Audit Committee, 09 Nov 2004

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